Articles

Daily articles carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. Read our popular and future articles.

PROFILE October 29, 2020

20 Seattle Jazz Musicians You Should Know: Matt Jorgensen

The city of Seattle has a jazz history that dates back to the very beginnings of the form. It was home to the first integrated club scene in America on Jackson St in the 1920's and 1930's. It saw a young Ray Charles arrive as a teenager to escape the nightmare of Jim Crow in the south. It has produced such historical jazz icons as Quincy Jones and Ernestine Anderson. In many instances it has acted as a temporary repose ...

ALBUM REVIEW October 29, 2020

Mikkel Ploug: Balcony Lullabies

By Dan Bilawsky

Upset, isolated and frustrated during the early stages of the near-global COVID-19 quarantine, Danish guitarist Mikkel Ploug did what he does best; he picked up his instrument and started playing. Sitting on his balcony and reflecting on the moment, Ploug set beauty in strings, allowing his sound to hold aloft. His appreciative neighbors listened with rapt attention, applauding at the conclusion of that otherwise personal performance. And so began the balcony lullabies. At 6:15 p.m. every evening, ...

BOOK REVIEW October 29, 2020

Komeda: A Private Life In Jazz

By Ian Patterson

Komeda: A Private Life In Jazz Magdalena Grzebałkowska 456 Pages ISBN: 978 1 78179 945 1 Equinox Publishing2020 That it has taken over fifty years for the first English-language biography of Krzysztof Komeda to appear reflects the pianist/composer's underground status outside his native Poland. Yet no history of European jazz would be complete without mention of this modernizing figure, whose career burned briefly but brightly from 1956, when he launched his modern jazz ...

ALBUM REVIEW October 29, 2020

Mike Barone Big Band: Brazil

By Jack Bowers

Brazil doesn't signify that the venerable California-based composer / arranger Mike Barone has gone Latin; it simply means that “Brazil" is the opening number and the name Barone chose for the latest in his long-running series of remarkable big-band albums. No matter, as a Barone recording by any other name would be every inch as inspired and exciting, thanks in large measure to his unerring control of the vehicle, not to mention his invariably radiant and resourceful charts.

RADIO October 29, 2020

New music from Adam Kolker plus a selection of recent albums

By Bob Osborne

There's an international feel to this show with music from around the world. The main focus is on the excellent new release from Adam Kolker. There's also the Anglo-Belgian pairing of the Damon Brown & Stephane Mercier Quintet, Canadian William Chernoff, and from the North West of England a new band from Nick Steed called THR33. I also feature music out of the USA from Restroy, James Brandon Lewis Quartet, Noah Haidu and from Australia Ken Stubbs. ...

ALBUM REVIEW October 29, 2020

Liga Latina: Liga Latina

By Chris M. Slawecki

Although the five musicians comprising Liga Latina are based in Scandinavia, their eponymous debut ignites your mind and heart with the passion and fire of Afro-Cuban, Cuba, Latin and Caribbean music. In the band's own words: Liga Latina is “one long love story between the Spanish guitar and the African drum." Liga Latina centers around composer Mike Hecchi, who takes lead vocals, plays guitar (Spanish) and trés (Cuban), and is joined in the solo frontline by trumpeter Rune ...

RADIO October 29, 2020

Something New

By Patrick Burnette

In this second episode of our prestigious four-part series (we got that idea from Masterpiece Theatre), “new" or at least “newish" music is the focus. Four albums from the best of the 2010's that seem to promise ambition and adventure and, for the most part, deliver. The journey may get rocky at times, but brace yourselves as we head for the hinterlands. Pop matters ranges from Harry Nilsson to Umberto and, let's face it, no one's home on that range. ...